


Dimensions of Trust

by Solanaceae



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Death Star, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 11:01:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10512435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solanaceae/pseuds/Solanaceae
Summary: The first thing Yvet Mycee noticed about the construction facility was how big it was.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sprocket](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprocket/gifts).



> For sprocket! It's my first attempt at writing in the Star Wars universe, so I hope it went well and that you enjoy!

The first thing Yvet Mycee noticed about the construction facility was how  _ big _ it was.

“What the hell are we  _ building _ ?” one of the other engineers whispered, echoing the thought that had immediately popped into Yvet’s head. Another person shushed him. Yvet watched out the window of the transport as the facility orbiting the planet below loomed larger and larger and - larger, seeming to never stop. 

They unloaded through a docking port, all of them still trying to surreptitiously gauge the size of the station. Yvet handed over her civilian clothes to a monitor droid and received a blue, baggy uniform in return. Outside, the ice-covered planet was visible as a thin crescent of light, circling the distant star.

***

The orders to move had come through a high-up channel, and that was about all that Yvet knew. She had only been an engineer for the Empire for a few years - graduated a tech academy with average grades, managed to land a few interim jobs while waiting for her first big assignment - and if this was it, if this was her big break, she had  _ no idea _ what it meant.

After the orders had come in, everything had moved so fast. She’d barely had time to send a message to her wife before being packed up in a transport bound for who knew where. That was another thing - she didn’t even know where in the galaxy she was, though it was somewhere within three day’s journey of her last posting. 

She could be anywhere, working on anything, and she might never know.

***

Work on the station was incredibly fragmented, Yvet soon found. The plans she was given to program into construction droids were only partial ones, even she could tell - and she pored over them, but could find no indication as to what they were meant to  _ be _ .

There was a blanket prohibition on sharing plans with other engineers. That just made Yvet even more curious, but her fellow workers were unwilling to break the rules, and she was too timid to push them on it.

One thing was for sure. Whatever they were building, it was  _ huge _ . 

***

When her orders were updated only a few weeks after arriving at the station, she immediately retired to her quarters to call her wife. 

“ _ You’re what?” _

Yvet pinched the bridge of her nose. “Not leaving here for a while. Kyra, I don’t like it any more than you do, but I have no control--”

_ “Oh, fuck that. You can up and quit right now, come back home and forget about all this.” _

“They say I’ve already been exposed to too much classified information. They don’t trust any of us. It’ll only be a few more years before we’re done, and then I can leave here.”

_ “A few--” _ Kyra looked horrified, interference making the outline of her face flicker. Yvet fiddled with the dials on the hologram, trying to filter it out. It was easier to do that than to look at her wife’s outraged expression.

“I’m sorry.”

When she looked up, Kyra’s face had softened.  _ “It’s not your fault, Yvet. I just - I just want you back home.” _

Yvet sighed. “Believe me, there’s nothing I would want more.”

***

The sheer size of the construction facility meant she rarely, if ever, saw the other engineers stationed out here. When she did, they looked just as stressed as she felt. There was a constant pressure implied in every order they received, in the disciplinary actions threatened for late work. 

“What’s the big rush?” Yvet grumbled to Kyra one night. “We’re working as fast as we possibly can, but the new plans keep coming in - if they just let us  _ talk _ to each other--”

“ _ Have you considered that they might be monitoring your calls with me? You probably shouldn’t complain like that. _ ”

“What’ll they do, station me somewhere even more remote?” But her wife was right, so she let Kyra steer the conversation back to safer territory. Still, sitting there listen to Kyra tell her about the new neighbors, she couldn’t help but wonder. 

Someone was in a rush, and the engineers were the ones feeling the pressure. Given the secrecy, it had to be someone of high importance - likely in the military. Rumors had circulated that Vader was getting involved in something beyond terrorizing the enemies of the Empire. Could it be him?

“ _ Yvet? _ ”

Startled out of her reverie, Yvet blinked. “Yes?”

“ _ I miss you.” _

“Miss you too.”

***

“Big news, Mycee.”

Yvet looked up from the water cooler she had been refilling her canteen at. “Yeah?”

Ryler, a fellow engineer with a shock of blonde hair and darting green eyes, leaned in conspiratorially. “Rumor has it we’ve got a  _ visitor _ coming.”

Yvet raised an eyebrow. “Thought we were shut off from the rest of the Empire back here.”

“Oh, yeah, us lower-level engineers get stationed out here at the back end of  _ nowhere _ , but this man that’s coming - Galen Erso - he’s a big deal. Coming to make sure we’re on schedule.” Ryler tapped the side of his nose meaningfully. “Better get all your droids under control, Mycee. It’s gonna be a busy couple weeks out here.” 

He turned and walked away. Yvet watched him go, half-filled canteen forgotten in her hand. 

***

Barely a day later, Yvet stood with the other engineers in a line, watching as a ship drew closer to the dock. It was the first time she had seen all of her fellow engineers in the same room since they had arrived, and it was interesting to see how they had changed - lost weight, gained sleepless bags under their eyes.

The ship eased through the glimmering barrier and settled down on the metal-plated floor. A rush of vapor as the door eased down, then a man dressed in somber grey and brown emerged.

_ Erso, _ Yvet thought, watching him approach. He was shorter than she would have expected from someone so important.

***

Erso spent the next few days visiting each engineer individually. From what she heard from the other engineers prior to her own evaluation, Yvet expected the worst - criticism, redirection, total overhaul of her projects. But when Erso arrived in her workshop, he spent the whole time quietly looking over her blueprints, nodding every now and then.

“You’ve altered these,” he noted at one point. 

“Yes, sir.” Yvet shifted uncomfortably. “I get these sent up from Ryler and the others, sometimes their designs don’t work out in real life for the droids doing the work.”

“Seems reasonable.” Erso pushed away from the table, stretching. “You’re running everything perfectly, Everything seems to be operating at peak efficiency.”

Yvet nodded, wondering why Erso looked almost unhappy about that. Shouldn’t that be a good thing? “Thank you, sir.”

“I’ll note all that in your file.” Erso swept past her towards the open door.

Yvet moved to look at the  blueprints he had been examining. They were for an exhaust port, or something like it, from what she could tell, though on a scale comparable to those used by Star Destroyers rather than the smaller ones she had worked on before. 

Had that gone well? It was hard to tell. 

***

On one of the lower levels of the station was a sparsely stocked cantina manned by a decommissioned battle droid. Yvet liked to spend her evenings off there, unwinding with a drink or two. To her surprise, the evening after the engineer evaluations were completed, none other than Galen Erso strolled through those doors and made his way over to the bar.

Curiosity piqued, Yvet retrieved her drink and made her way over to where he sat. He looked up as she approached.

“Mycee.” 

“Sir.” She was mildly surprised that he remembered her name. “May I join you?”

Erso gestured at the seat next to him. Yvet sat.

“Can I ask you a question?” she ventured. Erso glanced at her.

“Yes.”

“What exactly are we building here?”

Erso’s brow knitted. “What are your priorities here, Mycee?”

“I--” Yvet looked down at her drink. There was something strange and wild in Erso’s eyes, different from the haunted look she sometimes caught when he was staring out the window at nothing in particular. “I just want to go  _ home _ .” 

Erso shot a glance over his shoulder, then leaned in. “Do you think you could bear knowing the truth and continue working despite it?”

Yvet hesitated. “I - yes.”

“What do you think you’re building?” 

“A weapon.” She hadn’t realized it until she spoke it aloud, but that was really the only option - given the size and the secrecy. “But it’s so big--”

“It is a weapon designed to destroy planets.” 

Yvet shot a horrified glance at Erso. His face was drawn with - regret? He  _ was _ the designer of this whole thing, as far as Yvet knew, and if he was complicit in - but she was just as guilty, for following orders so long without question. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t known, deep down, that whatever they were building had the potential to destroy.

Only one question remained in her mind.

“How do we stop it?”

Erso looked surprised. “What makes you think I want to stop it, Mycee?”

Yvet felt her face go hot with embarrassment. “I thought - well, why would you have told me like that if you  _ didn’t _ think I would want to?”

He nodded. “But are you only saying that to get enough evidence to turn me in?”

She laughed, short and sharp. “If I had the brains to do that, I wouldn’t have ended up stationed out here.”

“Very well.” Erso seemed to think for a moment, then abruptly pushed his chair away from the bar and stood. 

“Sir?” Yvet asked, startled. Erso made a motion to forestall her.

“I’ll be in touch soon.”

***

Erso came down to her workspace near the start of her next shift with a data drive. 

“Encrypt this message for me. They have me under tight surveillance, but as far as they know, you’re innocent.”

_ As innocent as any of us are. _ Yvet set down the plans she had been poring over. “Give it to me and I’ll figure something out.”

Erso nodded grimly. “Good. There’s a pilot you’ll send it to. If he turns out to be trustworthy, I can meet with him to set up the next stage of the plan.” He paused, then reached across the worktable and patted Yvet’s hand awkwardly. “This will help bring an end, one way or another.”

Yvet nodded.

“And - Mycee?”

“Yes?”

“You’re in a more important position here than you realize. Most of the engineers here have their work funneled through you. Do whatever you can do slow this down.”

Yvet smiled. “What, you want me to throw a wrench in this whole thing?”

“Exactly.”

“That won’t be hard.”

For the first time, she saw a smile break across Erso’s face, lifting years from the wrinkles around his eyes. “That’s what I like to hear.”


End file.
